Taken
by Katsumadarkness
Summary: Maka has been kidnapped by Medusa and has been missing for about three days.  Kid, Soul and Blackstar go to save her, but Soul is captured as well, can they save their friends before crap hits the fan?  R/R please, and apologies if it sucks. :D
1. Discoveries

Title: Taken

Warnings: SEVERE Angst, Kidnapping, Implied rape, character torture... Enjoy?

Pairings: SoulxMaka Implied KidxPatty and BlackstarxTsubaki

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater.. if I did.. I'd be rich. :D

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I turned, looking to Maka and frowned, noticing she was sitting on the couch reading. There was this thumping... and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from.. I got up off the chair and walked into the kitchen, trying to locate the source of the banging - it was repetative and didn't seem to stop. How could Maka not hear it? She usually pitched a fit about something or other interrupting her reading. It.. sounded almost like a door - but there wasn't anyone there, was there? I checked the front door, then the doors to the rooms just in case... and still couldn't find anything. What the hell? The knocking became more and more insistent, almost frantic in the tempo. Oh, hey, it stopped. I guess that worked. Now I could get back to my favorite hobby - finding subtle ways to get Maka to notice me without ending in me getting chopped by a book.

"WHAT THE HELL?" I sat bolt upright, almost beaning Blackstar in the face with my fist in surprise. What the hell.. why was he in my dream? Check that, why was he in my room at.. I leaned over and checked the clock. 3:48am...What the hell? I turned on him, finding that he was looking even more serious than normal - Tsubaki standing behind him at my bedroom door. "What the hell are you doing in my room, Blackstar?' I had to hastilly check my manner of dress and was pleased to note that, while shirtless, I had shorts on.

"Soul. You need to come with us. Right Now.." I jerked at the third voice in my apartment and glared at Kid as he stepped around Tsubaki. Now all three of them were looking too serious for their own good. I sighed and mopped my face with my hand, trying to get the sleep to go away so I could be alert. This was stupid... Why were they here at such an ungodly hour?

"All right... One of you go get Maka, would you?" I snickered in my head, knowing full well that whoever woke Maka was going to get Maka-Chopped with whatever she had handy. I had been too busy snickering and sifting my fingers through my hair to notice Tsubaki dash down the hall in tears. I could hear the quiet sobbing in the living room, and watched Blackstar turn to follow her. Now I was only left with Kid, looking more somber than normal. I was awake instantly - knowing it had something to do with her. I threw back my blankets and pushed past my friend and into Maka's room. Her bed had been made pristinely, her books still on the desk. Her clothes hung over the back of her desk chair ready for the next day... but there was no Maka. I spun on my heel and tore out of her room, looking frantically through the apartment.

The bathroom was clear, and I could tell in one look that the living room and kitchen were void of Maka. I turned on Tsubaki and Blackstar on our couch. Tsubaki was sobbing into her hands with her meister sitting next to her and rubbing his hands up and down her back in consolation. That left... I rounded on Kid and before I knew it, had the immortal pinned up against the wall, my right hand at his throat, my left turning into a scythe. I didn't mean to hurt Kid, I never would - but the threat was there. "WHERE'S MAKA?" They knew something, I knew they knew something. I had to hand it to him - he stayed as cool as a cucumber, whereas I had not stayed cool at all.

"We don't know. We were hoping that with your connection to her, we could find her. Let me go, and we will go to my father's room and discuss the plan of attack. You are an important key to her disappearance, Soul. You are needed - you can't lose control now." I growled, gritting my teeth together before letting him go, not realizing that I had also pinned him so his feet were dangling. My arm turned back to my regular arm and I settled for clenching my fists at my side. I turned, glaring at Blackstar and Tsubaki before grabbing my coat from the back of a table chair and turning towards the door.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go find her." I could hardly contain my anger at the situation, but something was overlaying that anger in its entirety - Worry and fear. I feared for my partner... worried how she would handle herself without me. Weapon and Meister, alone are strong, but a magical weapon is only magical in the hands of a Meister. I was damn near useless without her, and she without me. Oh, we both had our strengths, and could handle ourselves to some degree, but there were only a few things that we could do without the assistance of the other. I threw my leg over my bike and kicked it to life before tearing down the street. I didn't care if I left the three of them behind me - Kid had his skateboard and Blackstar was fast on his own - They were fine being left on their own. I tore down the street, not caring that there were people sleeping - I knew the sound of my engine roaring would wake some - but I was more concerned with Maka's health than I was their beauty sleep.

I was quite proud of my bike - I'd been working on it off and on over the years, and because of that, it had become quite the powerful machine. I'd even begun teaching Maka how to drive it, though she showed little interest in driving... At least less than she did about clinging to my back. Not that I was complaining, mind you - I enjoyed the touch of her arms around my abdomen as we flew towards our destinations. I arrived at the school in what felt like an eternity - but in reality was probably faster than I'd ever gotten there. The trip to Death's room was even more of an eternity - but Kid and Blackstar caught up to me and the four of us marched down the hall of guillotines as if our lives depended on it. Ahead of us, Liz and Patty stood on either side of the path about halfway there, as if they were guarding the corridor... but from who?

Call me silly, but the six of us met up and we all began walking towards the door as if we were in sync or something. I thought the authoritive sound of our various boots, shoes and heels clicking on the floor in rhythm made things all the better for strength. With them, I felt as if we could tackle any obstacle and get Maka back - no matter what it took. Deathsythe was standing beside the door opposite Stein when we arrived, which shocked me - those two were usually sleeping at this hour. Deathsythe's eyes had been rimmed with red as if he'd been on a crying spree - knowing the man he had been. Kid and his two partners, Liz and Patty went in first, then Blackstar and Tsubaki. I was shocked that Blackstar wasn't shouting about something or other about his greatness, but I guess even he could be worried about our friends at some point. I followed up, bringing up the rear but was stopped by a hand on my shoulder.

"Soul... I...I-..." I frowned when Deathsythe broke into tears, but his shaking had increased as he tried to hold them back - which was different. His expression had hardened, his eyes taking on a somewhat dangerous gleam to them. "Bring her back to me, Soul. I can't... stand it if she were to get hurt... "I reached up and took his hand from my shoulder, bringing it to a handshake rather than him clasping my shoulder. I gave the man by best toothy grin, full of confidence that we'd find her in no time.

"Sure. I'll find her, she *IS* my Meister after all." I stepped back from him and into the door, knowing his footsteps were right behind me. I could see Kid, Liz, Patty, Blackstar and Tsubaki all lined up on the podium, Death in front of the Mirror as they all watched something. Liz and Patty were in tears even as Tsubaki was. When I stepped up to the platform, Death turned to me with a cheerful wave of both of his large hands, his chipper voice filling the room.

"HEY~HO! Good to see ya, Soul!" I tch'd at his exuberant greeting and stuffed my hands in my pockets. Goofing off like this when Maka was in trouble was just not cool.

"Where's Maka, Old man? I know you know something... you had better tell me, or so help me I'll -" I was stopeped by Deathsythe's hand on my shoulder, glaring up at him with a somewhat scary smile. "What?"

"You may not be Deaths' primary weapon, but you have to take into consideration that you are still a Deathsythe and have a power at your fingertips that should not be flaunted needlessly." I stopped glaring and tch'd slumping my shoulders in on myself as I listened to him.

"Yea, Yea... Just... get on with it would you?" I felt him squeeze my shoulder before he stepped back - he knew my suffering, I guessed... Maka was his daughter, but god damnit! She was my meister! My teeth ground together and I almost missed what Death was saying before he cleared his throat. I looked slightly apologetic, but I was still pissed beyond all reason at the situation.

"As I was saying. You are all aware that Maka Alborn has gone missing from Death City - Of course you're aware of that, you wouldn't be here if you weren't! Well, as of 3:00 am this morning, we received a message giving us a clue to the whereabouts of the missing meister. Of course, this message was in the form of a video, and I would suggest you turn your head if you don't wish to see the specifics!" What the hell? He turned to his mirror and said a command, causing the three girls plus Deathsythe to break into tears all over again. What could be so bad as to bring Tsubaki to tears? Or Patty? Liz and Deathsythe cried all the time it seemed. I would have scoffed more, but the images on the mirror caught and held my attention.

I wanted to go shoot the bastard who had sent this video... more than that; I wanted to gut whoever was taping it. This was almost enough to bring tears to my eyes - and cool guys don't cry. Maka was sprawled out on a floor of some sort, her jacket missing, leaving her school uniform the only cloth covering her petite form. If it could be called that... Her plaid skirt was shredded, revealing uncountable cuts and lashes on her legs, I could even see some of them partially hidden by the skirt. If that wasn't enough, her tie was missing, leaving her white shirt torn and bloodstained, and revealing *WAY* too much skin to be decent. Her neck and arms were covered in the same gashes and lacerations that her legs were covered in. She looked to be unconscious, by the looks of her closed eyes, but it was nearly impossible to tell if she was breathing from the video.

My eyes traveled to her hair, the sandy brown locks hanging matted and bloody around her face. Her face was also splattered with blood, and bruises marred her entire body - I couldn't see any broken bones, but god, she'd been treated... I growled, clenching my fists, so angry that I had almost missed the person talking in the video.

"-All we demand in return is the lives of your son... Oh, and the complete surrender of Death City." Medusa... My blood boiled and I spun around, my fist slamming so hard into the wall at my left that it cracked the framework slightly. There was almost a suffocating silence after my unannounced attack on the inanimate wall. I stood there, my right hand embedded in the wall, my left fist curled up at my chest. My head was hanging down, and I knew I was panting irregularly... and to my surprise, there was sweat dripping down my face and hair onto the floor.

There was a touch to my back that didn't even gain a reaction out of me, only left me panting and shaking. The touch shifted up my back to rest around my neck, and I could smell the familiar scent of Vanilla - that caused me to spin around. There wasn't anyone there, and I lifted my hand to rest it at the back of my neck where I'd felt her hand... Or had I imagined it?

"Soul?" I sighed, unclenching my fists and then massaging the one that I'd used to punch the wall as I turned to look at Death and the gathered members.

"We're going to get her."

"We don't even know where to look, Soul! If we charge out blindly, we will become lost... in both our path and our goal." I would have loved nothing more than to punch Kid in the face right about then, but I knew he was right - but I couldn't just *LEAVE* her. I walked up to the podium and left my hands return to my pockets.

"I'm her partner... right? I can try to find her through Soul Resonance and the Black Blood that infects us both." There was a deafening silence after that and I growled at them, shaking my head. "I'm telling you - that's our best chance of finding her. You can look at me like I'm nuts all you want... I know it'll work." Eventually. I moved to sit down on the steps where I rested my arms on my knees and closed my eyes. I had noticed Deathsythe's vaunted look of hope before I'd closed my eyes - and I didn't want it to distract me from what I had to do. I knew that at this distance, I would most likely not find her, but I could have sworn that her hand had been right there. 


	2. Decisions

Title: Taken

Warnings: SEVERE Angst, Kidnapping, Implied rape, character torture... Enjoy?

Pairings: SoulxMaka Implied KidxPatty and BlackstarxTsubaki

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater.. if I did.. I'd be rich. :D

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There was my souls room, the black piano, the bench and the chair... the checkered floor and even the broken record playing repeatedly over and over. It was all so heart achingly familiar that I'd almost forgotten that I'd swallowed the Demon a long time ago. It was quiet - but that was okay... it worked better for what I had to do to find Maka. I concentrated on her soul wavelength, the feeling that I got when we resonated, and the feeling of her soul.

'Maka...Come on Maka... you can pull through this... give me a hint... anything." I could feel a faint flicker in my room, and I concentrated harder, before I finally felt it - that touching of souls that I knew meant Maka. I opened my eyes and found that my surroundings had changed, I was now back in our apartment... but the walls were different. Normally a cream color, they were blood red and ...wet? Like new paint, only it didn't smell like new paint, it smelled metallic... Oh god... the walls were covered in blood. I pounded down the hall towards Maka's room and found her curled up on her bed, sobbing like I'd never heard her sobbing before. She looked the same as she did in the video, but this time, I could hear her unlike before.

"Soul... please help me..." I broke then, and rushed to her side where I knelt on the floor next to her bed and took her hand in mine. I could tell that if I did anything more, she would be in huge amounts if pain, so instead, I settled for kneeling next to her and holding her hand. The instant I took her hand, she tightened hers on my fingers and froze, as if staring at my fingers, as if she couldn't believe her eyes. I smiled in my crooked way and waited until she noticed. Her eyes traveled up my hand, to my wrist, then to my arm and my elbow. My elbow led her to my shoulder, then to my chest and, finally, my face. I noticed then that I was dressed as I sometimes did at home, dressed in a white sleeveless shirt, and some black jeans. I had the slim black headband in my hair, and I knew that she focused on my face first, then my hair and eyes.. as if she didn't believe it. "SOUL!" I'm glad that I was kneeling, or I know I would have been knocked down with her exuberant hug.

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, despite the fact that I knew she was probably in extreme amounts of pain. I couldn't help but hold her - she was injured, and it was my job to protect her.. She pressed her face into my shoulder and neck, and I could smell her Vanilla shampoo and wash soap... a smell I knew many women wore.. but this had underlying hints of Maka and Maka alone. I clung to her, just as she clung to me - though she was crying in what seemed an endless amount of tears.

"Maka... Gods.. I thought I'd never find you.." She started shaking rather violently, and I knew that she was having just as much of a problem with this as I was having on my own. I lifted my hand and ran my fingers through her matted hair, gently untangling the chunks that had been stuck together by dried blood and sweat. "Talk to me, Maka..."

"You know this isn't Real.. Soul.. We're not really here... I can't get away from her." The broken hearted words f hers almost broke my own heart - hell..it did.. I could feel the thing shattering into pieces around me.

"Just for a few moments.. we can be together.. Even if I can't get to you physically right now.. Maka.. " I lifted her chin, forcing her to look at my face - forcing her to see. "Maka, I *WILL* save you. You're my Meister.. My other half..." The one I've given my heart to. She smiled slightly, a crooked, bastardization of a smile, but it was a smile nonetheless. "Maka... Can you tell me anything about what's going on? Can you tell me anything about where you are?' I knew that I would concern the people waiting on me.. our friends if I stayed here too long.. but so help me.. I wasn't going to leave Maka until I absolutely had to. Her fingers tightened around my shoulders, and I could feel her nails digging into my shoulder blades.

"I... don't know. I was coming back from making a late night run to the library... and they surprised me. I woke up here.. before... before.. -" I frowned, having to lift her chin out of my shoulder, to force her to look at me again. What was asking her get so choked up? Why was she so upset? So help me, if they'd done anything to her, I would ..."He... they.." She made an odd, broken gesture towards where she rested in my lap, and I found myself confused... At least until I remembered that in the video, she'd ben chained with her hands above her head. ...I felt a fury like nothing I had ever felt - so much that I lost sight of everything due to the white that clouded my vision, the ringing in my ears that blocked out all sound. Only the shaking touch of Maka's fingers on my cheek brought me back to myself, and her frightened face. "Stay with me.. please?" I knew that she was scared almost to death, and I nodded, shifting my grip on her so I could lift her up. I lifted her into my arms and took her carefully into the bathroom where I set her down on the toilet.

"I don't know if this will help you, Maka... but there's no reason for you to be so dirty here in our souls.." I had had my back turned to her while I'd been grabbing a towel out from under the sink, so I'd missed the involuntary jerk at my use of the word 'Dirty'. When I turned back to her, she had averted her eyes and was looking at the side of the tub. "Don't Maka Chop me for this.. but I am gonna help you...uhm...yea... But I won't do anything uncool!" I flinched when she lifted her hand, looking at me, but she only held her hand out, and I took it in my own, bringing her hand to my chest. She gave me a watery smile, and I knew then that she trusted me to help her... bathe. I knew that I was as red as a tomato - but I wasn't about to abandon her here. I supported her while she stood, helped remove the shredded clothing she wore and then reached over to twist the taps of the tub. I ran my hand beneath them until the temperature was at a level that would help her get clean, but not burn her.. and help sore muscles.

With her assistance, I got her into the tub - after removing the towel I'd wrapped around her for posterity's sake after we'd undressed her. I knew that I was burning up with embarrassment, but the desperate clutch she had on my arm told her that my leaving for her sake was out of the question. We got her settled into the tub, and with the barest of touches, I began cleaning her from the scratches and the wounds. As I shifted her around, I always had my opposite arm hooked around her for support so she didn't slip in. I was as gentle as possible around her wounds - but I knew they still stung from her grunts and quiet hisses of pain. First her neck and shoulders, then her back and arms.. Her legs were from the feet up, then when I got to her torso, I handed the washcloth to her so she could do it. Instead of cleaning herself as I'd hoped, she just dropped the washcloth and looked up at me. I laughed softly and hooked my arm around her shoulders again and began to gently clean her front. This was.. so strange.. but at least she wasn't Maka Chopping me for it. We got her body clean and I reached over to empty the disgusting water as I reached for the vanilla scented shampoo she'd come to favor.

During the entire bathing process, we hadn't said a word to one another - the only 'communication' I'd had from her other than the soft sounds when I cleaned her wounds, was the near constant grip on my arms that she had. If my arm was in front of her as I washed her back, she clung to it with a deathgrip - if I was using that arm to wash her, she clung to it, but shook the entire time until she could transfer her grip to an arm that I wasn't currently using. When we finished, I helped her stand and wrapped her in a clean towel before lifting her up and carrying her from the bathroom. I knew that she was capable of walking, but.. I was already soaked, and I didn't mind. Any contact with her was something I clung to as desperately as she clung to my arm. We got her dressed in some flannel pajama's she wore after I got all the wounds ointment and the worst bandaged with strips of stretchy bandaging we had in the cupboards. I carefully tucked her beneath her blankets and when I'd turned to grab another blanket, she'd transferred her grip and clung to my hand. I turned with a smile, and finally heard her speaking.

"Please... stay here?" I gave up on finding another blanket and crawled beneath the blankets with her, not sure how much contact she'd wanted because of her ordeal, but she made up that choice for me.. I wrapped my left arm around her waist, my right going under her head so she was using my shoulder more or less as a pillow. I stayed like that until she drifted off to sleep, then remained there until I fell into a restless sleep myself. I knew that I wouldn't allow anyone to touch her... not while I was around.

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I woke up with a start, at first, I was confused about the smells of antiseptic and bandages, but then it clicked. I sat up in the bed of the medical ward, the thin blankets falling from my chest. I glanced up at the room around me and noticed that Kid was discussing in low tones across the room with everyone but Tsubaki. Where was Tsubak-.

'How was she, Soul?" I fell back to the bed and dry washed my face with my hands before looking at the concerned ninja weapon who was instantly joined by our comrades. I smiled crookedly at their guess that I'd found her.. Then again, it was light outside - so I could only guess at how long I'd been 'asleep'. At the question I got angry all over again and threw myself from the bed, grabbing my jacket on the way..

"You had better have a plan to get her by now... I will kill anyone who gets in my way." I knew I was practically snarling, but I couldn't care less - Maka was being treated... like..like... I clenched my hands into fists and started towards the door - when someone stupidly got in my way. The person in question tried to grab my shoulder and I spun around on my heel, my arm already a scythe as it came down towards them. Instead of the feeling of flesh around my blade, I felt it stop short, and heard the clang of blade to blade. I planted my foot and spun, my other arm transforming to attack again. Again, Deathsythe blocked my swing, then he repeated that action three, four, five times. I didn't care that we were fighting in the infirmary, or that my friends were nearby trying to figure a way to stop me - I was so furious that I was being stopped when all I wanted to do was save Maka. If I had been thinking logically, I would have known the consequences of my actions, but I wasn't thinking in *ANY* semblance of Logic.

I swung to go at him again when my arm was stopped midswing, bringing me around to look at the man who'd grabbed my blade. Stein had used his freaky wavelength and stopped my arm cold. The look on the faces of my two opponents was rigid, and damn near frozen in their fury.

"That's enough, Soul Eater. You may consider yourself under arrest." I froze then, gaping at them in horror. What.. wait.. NO! I jerked away, finding that I was backing up into our resident zombie, Sid. His arms lowered to grab my biceps and I struggled, only to find that I was facing his weapon now to. This.. wasn't supposed to be this way... As they pulled me out of the room, I could see the faces of my friends, and their stances of defense - though Kid was standing in front of them with his arms held out as if to stop them. I didn't hear any words they were exchanging, but I did notice that Blackstar held Tsubaki in his hands, in her chain scythe mode. I dug my heels in, looking back at them with a quiet look. Find her.. that look said.

They hauled me out of the medical wing and down the hall, where they brought me down another flight of steps, then another before I arrived at the cells below the school. Sid released his hold on my arms and gave me a shove that was gentle.. for the man into the cell. After the door was closed, I looked up to see Deathsythe's face in the small viewing grid. I heard him talking, but ignored it, turning my head to the side and adjusting my seat on the cold floor. They'd bound my wrists behind me in manacles that were too strong for me to just shift my arms into sythes to escape. I growled under my breath as I heard the deadbolts on the outside of the cell clanking shut. One... Two... Three..four...The fourth deadbolt clicking closed caused a lump to form in my throat. Only the ones that were the most dangerous and slated for execution were locked in the cell with four deadbolts.. At least I wasn't in the cell with five deadbolts.. I knew that at least now, I had a chance to appeal... The fifth cell left their victims to starve in complete and total isolation.

I carefully banged the back of my head against the wall behind me, closing my eyes. "Maka... What have I done..." 


	3. Construed Truths

Title: Taken

Warnings: SEVERE Angst, Kidnapping, Implied rape, character torture... Enjoy?

Pairings: SoulxMaka Implied KidxPatty and BlackstarxTsubaki

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater.. if I did.. I'd be rich. :D

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Death the Kid PoV

"But Father! You know as well as I the reason he did it." I stood before my father, trying as hard as possible to plead Souls Case. He was the only living being we could rely on to help us find Maka.. and he was in lock up in Cell four deep! I paced before my father, exactly eight steps to the left, then turned around and paced exactly eight steps back to my starting point before I began the trip once more. Liz and Patty were in the apartment belonging to Blackstar and Tsubaki - discussing ideas of how to find Maka.. and free Soul.

"Well, Kid, you know as well as I that it is beyond my power now. A Deathsythe running rampant is a danger to us all... He must be dealt with accordingly." The over exaggerated shrug only served to infuriate me even more, until I stopped pacing, exactly where I began and breathed to calm myself down. He had brought his oversized hand to his 'chin' and begun rubbing as if he were thinking. The man turned his back on me and I fumed, opening my mouth to speak my mind before he began to speak. "Of course.. There is no one aside from myself who has the entrance codes to cell four deep... but I seem to be having a lapse of memory today.. and have written them down on this piece of paper here.." He lifted the white slip of paper in his free hand, waving it thoughtfully. I started to smile at the man I knew as my father. He hadn't gotten where he was just on his looks - I knew that.. And it was only reaffirmed when he continued speaking. "Nor, would it be known to me if I were to accidentally leave these codes on the table.. and say.. someone were to take them? My memory being as shoddy as it is... I might forget I had written them down in the first place... Who knows?" He shrugged, and as he shrugged, he let that slip of paper drop, and it landed delicately onto the table mentioned bore.

I stepped over to the table and, when he turned his back, muttering about the possibilities of his forgetfulness, I lifted the slip of paper and slid it into my coat with a smile. Who knows indeed, Father. I turned on my heel as he waved over his shoulder to me, giving Sid and Deathsythe passing nods as I walked back through the door. I could see by their smiles that they d seen - but knew that these two were as faithful to my father as they were to themselves... My steps carried me to Blackstar and Tsubaki s apartment, or it would be more correct to say that my skateboard brought me there. I knocked exactly eight times on the door before it was opened and I stepped through into the living room. I kept my arms crossed smugly over my chest, but simply gave them each smile.

Come with me, everyone. We have a field trip to make. I could see by their expressions that they were confused, but I simply turned to leave, calling up my skateboard outside. It would be best if you carried Tsubaki with you, Black Star. This is a field trip best done with as few visible bodies as possible. Liz, Patty. I held out my hands, hearing the two affirmations of my partners as they shifted and came to my grip. I turned my board to see Blackstar gripping Tsubaki in her short sword mode and coming outside, a grin on his face. Shall we begin? I adjusted my grip on both Liz and Patty before starting off towards the school once more. Of course, I knew that I wouldn t be simply making a trip for no reason - but I had something in mind that we would be doing. Once we reached the school, I led him around the back of the school where I knew a hidden bolt hole was installed in the base of the school. It had been meant in the event of a takeover, the students, teachers and their weapons could escape in safety. Only a member of my family could open it, and father and I were the only two who knew of its existence. This way, Blackstar. Once we enter this corridor, there is to be no sound aside from footsteps. It echoes down here, and any sound might alert someone to our presence.

Seeing his nod, I pressed my palm flat against the inscribed design -that was, of course, perfectly symmetrical in every way. The circle glowed, and gave way to the entryway in silence. Motioning Blackstar through, I closed our exit behind me and then resumed the lead. The corridor was perfectly straight, with only a few off shooting tunnels, but in effect, a straight shot to the cells. The exit was on Five Deep - which s the last place I knew any attackers would possibly go. We exited into the back of a cell, and I continued through the small space to the door, where I pushed it open soundlessly and crept through. We made haste through the tunnel, then up to the steps where I once again gained us passage. My father would be the only one able to see anyone who accessed these levels - and I knew he wouldn t bat an eye at them. We climbed a set of stairs to the Fourth level and I glanced to my slip of paper - father had written both the codes for the levels... and the key to what I assume was soul s door and bindings. I motioned for Blackstar to stay and guard the stairs while I rushed ahead to the cell I knew Soul would be held in.

I reached the cell and carefully set Liz on the ground at my feet, knowing she would remain in weapon form for now. The four bolts were easy to remove, and I knew that Soul might be looking for whoever it was opening his door. I lowered myself into a perfect crouch and opened the door, holding a finger to my lips as I laid eyes on him. My steps carried me into the cell where I forced myself to ignore the lack of symmetry of the surrounding stones before I made it to Soul. When I kneeled next to him, he turned, offering me his arms without a word - and I inputted the code to remove them. Assuming he knew of our needed silence, I turned, creeping back out the door to pick up Liz again. He followed me out, rubbing his hands and then went to where Blackstar was frantically waving for us. I closed and bolted the door behind me - letting our surprisingly quiet ninja friend lead us back through the tunnel.

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Soul PoV.

I couldn t put how glad I d been to see Kid to words, no matter how much I might try. When we were finally out of the tunnel, I looked around, taking a deep breath of my surroundings, before I turned at a touch to my shoulder. Kid gave me a nod and I grinned lopsidedly at him, then the euphoric grin of Blackstars.

Soul, Let s get your bike - you will carry Blackstar and Tsubaki... We are going to get Maka. I could have cared less that I d be sharing a bike with Blackstar and nodded, turning and clapping Kid on the shoulder as well, only to have him punch my fist instead.

Let s go then...You guys are cool... Blackstar and I ran around the side of the school, leaving Kid floating on his skateboard behind the building - waiting for our return. He d warned me in low tones before I left that while he d gotten the codes - I would be an outcast unless he could convince his father otherwise.. or we saved Maka. I reached my bike and froze, seeing Sid standing near it, his weapon in his hand - arms crossed. Blackstar growled behind me and jumped at Sid, who dodged and blocked the short sword Tsubaki as he looked at the two of us.

If you stop attacking me I will say nothing of your passing. Before I died, I would have stopped you with every strength I had... that s the man I was.. Things have changes since then. His weapon transformed back and grinned at us as Blackstar started talking about how great he was to cause them to stand down. I got on my bike and whacked him on the back of the head as I passed by, waiting for him to get on. Kid hadn t told us to be quiet after we d exited the tunnel - but standing here exposed outside the school made loud noises not cool at all. At least, not before we were ready to go. Once Blackstar was on my bike, I grinned and revved my engine, tearing off down the steps and towards the streets that would lead us out of Death City.

YAHHOOOOOOOOO! I laughed with Blackstars cheer as we ramped one of the small hills and fishtailed until we straightened and returned to our path. I could see Kid s blue propulsion from his skateboard in my mirrors and grinned, knowing he would watch our tail; I concentrated on the road ahead of us. We met with little to no resistance, and in fact, I could see a few of our classmates grinning from behind closed curtains... I didn t realize how many cool friends we all had. I felt like there was a perpetual grin on my face as we moved, but I couldn t remove it - nor did I want to...

I m on my way, Maka... The thought repeated itself in my mind, over and over in a rhythm... much like the broken record that played in my room... or that did when the Imp was there. We sped through the desert surrounding Death City, the only path of direction being my own sense of where Maka could be. Granted, I was nothing like my Meister in Soul Perception but I could try because she was MY meister. I know Kid occasionally shot off to look for patrols or anything behind us, but he would always return to following our trail across the desert a few minutes later.

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We stopped about three hours into our trip, finding a knoll of sand that could provide some shelter. As soon as Blackstar climbed off, Tsubaki transformed back into her human form and stretched right along with Liz and Patty. I knew that staying in weapon form for that long was painful but it was needed for right now.. I wouldn t let anyone else drive my bike; Unless it was Maka, of course. We broke into separate groups to do what we needed to do.. Kid and his two partners set up a tent they d brought with them, Blackstar and Tsubaki ran a perimeter, and I began gathering driftwood for a fire that evening.

Of course, most of the provisions were in Kids palm storage, which made traveling light a set of words we didn t have in our vocabulary. I sucked at cooking, even worse than Liz did but I didn t really have anything to do other than cook. That, and worry over Maka s well being. Our dinner was simple, scrambled eggs and some hot chocolate. All were things that I could make in a few minutes, and in the pans that Kid had brought with him. I m glad that Tsubaki is cooking tomorrow night, I don t think I could stand my own cooking for even another minute.. Because I d cooked, Kid cleaned up while I stretched out in my bunk to try to contact Maka again.

Resonating with my partner was the only lead we had to her location that and being near Medusa. We could have taken Stein with us, I m sure but I don t think any of us felt like we could trust the man.. not for this mission. Granted, his Soul Perception would be useful.. but I for one wasn t gonna let him close to Maka .. or myself right now. Even if my getting landed in jail was my fault I wouldn t let that sadistic bastard near my Meister. Stretching out on my bunk which really only consisted of a sleeping bag for padding and a blanket to cover myself with . I squirmed to get comfortable.

I had to admit Despite being a weapon, I had been spoiled by the beds in my family s house, then Maka s apartment. Despite feeling uncomfortable, I tucked my arms behind my head and forced myself to focus. I didn t know if Maka would even be able to resonate with me again, but I couldn t just *NOT* try... I m sure anyone would understand if they were in my position. Finally, I managed to get my breathing settled, and closed my eyes to find myself in my souls room. Well, this was working so far but could I reach Maka? I tried to resonate with my meister, but couldn t reach her.. my settings didn t change.

There was little else I could do for the time being, so I ran my fingers over the polished surface of the grand piano resting within the glowing lights of my souls room. I knew that she enjoyed my playing, so maybe it could help her.. wherever she was. Adjusting my collar, I sat down and gently opened the lid covering the ivory keys. At first, I just stroked the keys lightly, not forcing any sound from them, only touching the ivory and onyx items with something akin to reverence. Finally, after about five minutes of touching the keys and trying to decide what to play, I made my choice and started on a tune in the key of G which was the note that Maka had chosen something that suited her.

I began to play, letting the tune take me into its depths, my fingers dancing across the length of the keyboard, my feet pressing and lifting different pedals at seemingly random points. I immersed myself so strongly in the music that I had almost forgotten what I d come here to do almost forgotten that I was playing to find Maka. I finished my song, the last notes hanging hauntingly in the air, sweat dripping off of my face onto my precious keys. I let the notes die out and straightened, closing the cover to my Piano in defeat.

I grit my teeth, closing my eyes and trying to resonate with Maka again but I couldn t feel her soul this time and it bothered me. But, I knew that she wouldn t always be able to join me in our souls especially with what was going on near her. The only thing that I knew was that we were still heading in the right direction, instinct was telling me it was the correct path to go. I let go of my souls room, returning to find Kid, Liz, Patty, and Blackstar sleeping in their respective beds. When I sat up, I saw that Tsubaki was missing and got up to find her. I couldn t have anyone else going missing right now not while we were looking for Maka. I pushed aside the tent flap and glanced around, noticing the long haired ninja weapon by the dying campfire.

Tsubaki? I approached her, trying to do my best not to startle the woman I knew she was the calmer of the two, but I still didn t want to end up with a throwing star smack dab in the middle of my forehead. I took a cross legged seat across from her when she finally spoke up, which caused me to stare at the crackling flames, my right hand resting on my knee, my left holding up my chin.

Do you think we ll find her, Soul?

Of course You don t think I d give up, do you? I lifted my head, staring at her over the flames, my left hand dropping to my lap clenched into a fist at her implications that I d just give up on my partner.

No, no I don t think that at all! I almost cracked a smile at her frantic waving of both of her hands as if she were trying not to get chopped by me. Her expression fell soon after that, her eyes staring at the fire. I meant, will we find her in time? From what you told us.. she s not doing well.. Will she make it?

The question forced my eyes back to the flames as well, focusing on the glowing coals at the base of the fire. She d told me once that the coals fascinated her the most, the way they seemed to shimmer, or roll over the surface. Staring at them in that light, I had to agree with her they did look cool. Did I have any fear in my soul that she wouldn t make it? No, not a single shred. I wasn t afraid that she d die I knew my Meister was stronger than that. I was afraid that her injuries would rend her incapable of wielding me anymore. Not that I was selfish and wanted nothing more than to join her in battle but our time living together didn t always get the same feel to it as opposed to when we were fighting. My biggest concern was that if I was forced to have a new Meister, that I would no longer be able to live or even resonate with Maka.

I ve no doubts that we ll find her in time, Tsubaki.. It s not cool to doubt yourself like that in something like this. We ll find her. I grinned up at her, seeing the timid answering smile in return before both of our gazes turned to the fire once more. I wanted nothing more than for her to return to me.. maybe I should try to sense her again? Hey, Tsubaki.. What time does dawn come in the desert?

Oh..I don t know, Kid does, I m sure. I looked up to see her sitting on her knees, her hands fisted in the material of her skirt sitting ramrod straight, but smiling none the less.

Thanks.. Guess I ll sit up watch with you tonight.

Can t you sleep? I tch d returning my chin to my hand, returning my eyes to the shifting coals that fascinated her so much.

It s not a question of can t or not.. it s a question of will. I don t want to sleep right now. If she manages to get in contact with me I ll miss it if I m asleep. That, and I wanted to remember everything that happened between us if it happened again I wanted to savor every moment I had with her.

Sure call me greedy.

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Author's Note: Okay. I've already had a few flaming notes on this.. and personally.. I'm gonna put my foot down right now. For those of you who think that people aren't like that after such an ordeal (I'm refering to Maka's actions in chapter two) you can take your accusations and eat them. I know someone who I feel was as strong as her, and had the same thing happen to her.. Not the same thing, exactly.. but close enough... She is *STILL* recovering from it even four years later. Different people deal with things in different ways. Don't send me any more flames about how Maka acted... Please and Ty. :)

Next thing... Yes, I know the characters are a bit (and in some cases, a LOT) out of character.. but I've only been watching the series for a little over a week (And reading) so I'm still getting into the mindsets of the characters. Forgive me ^^


	4. Illusions

Title: Taken

Warnings: SEVERE Angst, Kidnapping, Implied rape, character torture... Enjoy?

Pairings: SoulxMaka Implied KidxPatty and BlackstarxTsubaki

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater.. if I did.. I'd be rich. :D

Author's Note: It seems that most of my Quotation notes mysteriously dissapeared in the last chapter.. Sorry if the lack thereof confused anyone.. I will try to keep an eye on that this next chapter. Oh.. and Finally we get to see a bit of Maka! Oh, Maka.. how I've missed you!

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Maka PoV.

I glared as well as I could at my captors, recognizing the hulking man with pointed ears and a magical left eye. Medusa was standing against the wall behind him as she always did, the black smoke coming out of her mouth with that smirk I hated so much. Despite how much my wrists and entire body hurt, I mustered the courage to struggle when Free came towards me with the thin wire coiled in his hands. Of course, being chained in a predominately still position made getting away from the flashing wire incredibly difficult, but I was getting the hang of it. I avoided only a fourth of the strikes, but that was a fourth less injuries that I had to take..

At least a small victory for me as Medusa seemed to take some sadistic joy out of watching me avoid the swings and strikes – at least I knew I was doing something for myself… instead of just waiting for Soul and the others to get here. I could sense their souls if I concentrated my hardest.. and had been given a break in the 'action' that they considered fun. I'm not sure what it was that Medusa was trying to do, but I was more than ready to get my hands on my partner and slice a path through them all… I 'woke up' from my musings when the wire cut painfully into the muscular flesh of my upper thigh. I was still athletic, even if I was slight of build – I didn't have to worry about gaining weight when I ran around as I did.

"Hey, Girly.. are you listening to me? I told you that I wanted to hear you scream." I had managed so far not to scream or make noises aside from cursing them when they hurt me… I considered that a matter of pride in myself.. I might cry or call out when I was fighting – but I wouldn't do it when they wanted me to.. I refused to let myself make a noise… Though when he caught me off guard by it, I did tend to let go of the iron hold on my tongue; apparently the grunt wasn't enough for him. Noticing the close proximity of the shape shifter, I gathered the moisture in my mouth and let fly to, what I felt, was an impressive degree… Right into his face. Another small victory.

As the man was howling and backing away to clear his eyes, one of Medusa's vector arrows shot out to wrap around my throat, leaving me to struggle not to suffocate. I could hear the sickly sweetness of her tone as she advanced towards me, that arrow constricting tighter..just like the snakes she favored so much. I knew that she had managed to put the two on her arms inside me… and could do whatever she wished because of it.. and that thought alone terrified me the most. Not that I would die – but that I would die without being able to do anything about it. Ever since I'd made Soul into a Deathsythe, I had found a strength to continue on, to do things that I wouldn't have been able to do when I'd started this journey. Of course.. I was still afraid of dying with my hands tied.. And I almost felt like the woman knew exactly what my worst fears were,

"You should simply give in to us, child… Listen to your elders and do as you're told. You won't have to endure any more of these punishments if you simply become subservient." Despite the arrow around my neck, I lashed out with a foot, trying to get her away from me.. I hated that woman.. hated everything about her.. and it wasn't just what she did to Chrona anymore. She had said things that I could never forgive. When she jerked backwards, the arrow cut into my throat, not bad enough to kill me.. but bad enough that it alarmed everyone in the room. Apparently, they wanted me alive for something or other.. so I was given minimal treatment of the wound and left in my cell on my own. This time, they didn't lower my chain as they had for the past two nights, they left me dangling as if I were a hunk of meat on the butchers hook.

Ugh… what a lovely image.. I couldn't even tell what time of day … or night it was.. I could never tell. The best source of time I had was when I'd met Soul Eater in our soul worlds.. but that had been almost too brief – a mere drop in the bucket for the time I had spent here.. Of course, the time wasn't really the issue, it was the sense of time to me during the entire ordeal. I sighed, lowering my head gingerly to let it hang on my chest. I knew there was no way to relax my arms, and while I had been strong enough in the beginning to be able to pull myself up and get my legs around the chain – I couldn't even pull myself up an inch now. I let my eyes look down my body, the torn clothing.. the half healed wounds… and the puddle of blood at my feet. How could a human bleed that much and not die? It had been a constant question since I had noticed it, as it grew larger and larger over the different 'punishments' they had me endure. That made me snarl, feeling my lips crack from the lack of anything to drink.

They thought that I'd give in to them and just roll over… I was having the last laugh there.. I knew that was the LAST thing I intended to do was just give in to them. I just couldn't do it.. everything that made me me was fighting against that very idea. I tried to take the weight of my body onto one arm so I could try to rotate my other shoulder, but I felt as weak as a newborn kitten.. and sick to go with it. This cell was as moldy and damp as it was uninviting and dingy. I knew I had developed some sort of lung infection… though I couldn't be sure that it was that, or the snakes that Medusa stuck me with… My fists clenched and unclenched as I struggled to drag myself up the chains to give my arms a rest, but I couldn't even move an inch, let alone the two feet I really needed.

Instead of expending my energy on trying to alleviate my pains in a physical way, I tried a different approach and closed my eyes, forcing my breathing to as much a semblance of order as I could with my hang constricting my breathing. I knew somewhere in my soul that I couldn't survive long hanging like this – my lungs were never able to get enough air into them… As I closed my eyes, I concentrated on my inner world, and the soul that I could feel miles to the south.. a soul that I knew even in the darkest places of my darkest dreams. I reached out to him, knowing that he was scared for me.. and that I was scared for myself.

Just as I was about to give up, I felt the brush of his soul in return to mine and I was in my bedroom, where we had last left off in our previous meeting, with a few differences. I wasn't in my bed, but on the floor, and I wasn't wearing my soft pajamas, but the remnants of my Spartoi uniform again. With a sigh, I lifted my hands to wipe some of the blood out of my face. I was holding myself together with bubble gum and band aids… I just wanted Soul to get back here.. I could deal with being in close proximity to Free and Medusa… but so long as the man wasn't touching me with anything other than that wire that he liked to use. If he started getting any closer than that, I knew that coherent thought went right out the window. Knowing that Soul might not be here for a while yet, I drew my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, locking my hands over my wrists.

As much as I tried, I was slowly realizing that there was no way that I would be able to be alone… not for a very long time… I could feel the trembles starting in my chest and working its way out to my arms and legs.. and I knew then that I wasn't going to be able to stop it. Instead of trying to fight it, I tucked my head into my knees and the circle of my arms and just let myself shake, trying to clear my head of everything that was scaring me at that moment. It was the touch of a hand on my arm that made me lash out, or maybe just the uncertainty of it all, but I knew that I'd done something irreparable when my hand met flesh and I heard a thump afterwards.

My soul knew who I'd hit, even if my mind hadn't at the time and I'd immediately coiled out of my little ball of depression and moved over to where Soul was picking himself up off the ground. I knelt at his side and reached out to take hold of him to help him up and he only slapped my hands away, leaving me staring at him in shock. The look on his face was almost the scariest thing I'd seen, his ruby eyes blazing with a controlled fury.

"Soul… I…I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to hit you!" I leaned in to help him wipe some of the transferred blood on my hand off of his face, but he only caught my hands in his, staring at me with a look I knew he only gave to our enemies.

"You always claim that you know me wherever I am. Yet you still manage to haul off and hit me when you're hiding from yourself." He stood, hauling me none too gently to my feet with him as he kept the hold of my wrists and spun me around so my back was to my bed. "Get a hold of yourself, Maka. You're worthless to me in this kind of shape.. Don't even know your own weapon. Do you understand that? Worthless to me. You will never get out of there, and quite frankly, I don't *WANT* you out of there.. Do you understand me? You. Are. Worthless!" All the while we were talking, he had been backing me up against the bed, when he spoke the last three words, he pushed once more and my knees hit, bringing us both down with a crash.

Despite the fact that it was Soul – I panicked and started kicking out, punching.. doing anything I could do to get out from beneath him. In the process, the wounds that he'd so tentatively cleaned the day before had split open and I had begun bleeding.. . The blood ended up being my savior as it made my skin slick enough to slide out of his grip. The moment I was free, I bolted for my door, slamming it in his face and trying to break the resonance I had with him. This was *WRONG*… I never would have thought that Soul of all people would do that!

I broke free of his connection and found myself staring straight into the face of the blonde witch who had started this all. She was looking concerned, even touching my cheek in a way that Soul had done so just the day before.

"Did something happen, Child?" I pulled my face away from her and looked at the ground at my feet, at the fresh blood that was dripping to join the rest in the puddle.

"No… Nothing happened.. Go away." I grit my teeth together, trying to reason out what was going on, trying to figure out what had changed, and why Soul acted the way he did. It was completely out of character for the man I'd known since I was fifteen. We were both nineteen now, and "I know that he'd never act that way….."

"Act what way, Child? Did that filthy boy do something to you? You know that men are worthless – They only use you until they are finished with you and then throw you away. Look at Free… He used you and left you to die.. isn't that just like the men that they are? Worthless…spineless slugs. You won't have to deal with that anymore, Child… If you only just let me help you." I tried to keep up with Medusa's path, but she kept circling around me as she talked, the tone of voice concerned, though I knew it was nothing of the like. Wasn't it? Wasn't the only thing she wanted our destruction? The death of everyone I held dear?

"What do you say, Child? Will you join me? I will help you rid the world of all the horrible men in your life… All you've got to do is say the word."

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Author's Note: OoOooOOoOOOoOOoooo Katsuma is on a roll tonight.. this story jsut won't leave me alone and let me sleep. Soooo.. what do you guys think? Should Maka give in and let Medusa take over? And what of Soul? Personally, I think he'd be an ass for doing that.. Don't you? I'm sure *I* would give in if my partner treated me that way...


	5. Call it a Hunch

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Soul PoV.

This was getting me nowhere! It was well into dawn and we had begun packing up the camp that we'd made, including covering traces of our fire. I hadn't felt a thing from Maka all night, and it only served to put me on edge the entire night; so much that Tsubaki had given up being on watch and gone to curl up with Blackstar. When morning came, I was sore from sitting up all night, and grouchy from the lack of contact from my meister. I had hoped that she would reach out to me when she had a chance for sleep – but I hadn't heard a peep out of her. The six of us ate a quiet breakfast of toast and some kind of jam… but I couldn't begin to tell you what it actually tasted like… All I could taste was ash, or something of the like.

Liz, Patty and Tsubaki returned to their weapon forms to join their Miesters while Kid mounted his skateboard, Beelzebub. I threw my own leg over my bike, letting Blackstar climb on behind me with Tsubaki wrapped around his neck. Like the trip the day before, we all rode in silence, each thinking our respective thoughts. I don't know much about the others – but I know my thoughts were revolving around my missing Meister. I would kill every last one of them – I was her weapon.. I was supposed to protect her. I don't know how long we were driving towards our destination – only going off of my gut feelings for Maka's location… It could have been minutes, hours, or even days, though I doubted the third option as I hadn't seen the sun set yet, though it had moved across the sky a good deal.

I glanced up, noticing something flashing out of the corner of my eye and looked at it. Thankfully, the sun was to my upper right and the flashing object was to the upper left. I blinked at it as it continued to flash before it clicked and my eyes widened, my hands jerking the bikes handlebars. I ignored Blackstars shout as I planted my boot in the sand, working with my legs and arms to control the spinning slide of the bike we were one. A feat that became complicated when something came into contact with the sand where we had been heading, sending the stuff *EVERYWHERE*. We came to a stop and I grabbed the Ninja Meister on the back of my bike just in time for both of us to leap off of it and into the air. I stretched out my right arm, transforming it into a sythe as our attacker charged out of the cloud of sand near my bike.

I could hear everyone shouting, but was concentrating on my target – the metal of his weapon flashing in the sunlight, even as my own flashed towards him. We collided once, my arm ringing loudly against his bladed weapon before our attack parted ways and I landed, skidding slightly on the sand. Blackstar flashed into the cloud of dust our attacker was encased in from his own landing, and Kid began firing shots from his twin guns. The combined attacks only served to kick up more sand and grit, but even through the heat of battle, I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd fought against this opponent before. The flashing image of our enemy left the cloud and arced into the air, coming down straight for me, apparently. I smirked, slurping at the hint of a meal to come and rushed to meet the attacker. His blade met mine a second time before I transformed my other arm to attack, only to be blocked by the end of a staff.

We fought back and forth for a few blows, the man spinning, using his bladed weapon to block my attacks, as well as the… wait… a minute. I growled, moving in a way that I knew would be blocked before I finally broke away, kneeling in the sand and panting – the few hits I'd taken having been traded equally to my skilled opponent. The dust began to settle, despite the spinning weapon attempting to kick it up – but I knew better.. I knew there was no way …. His moves were too familiar, too attuned to my own attacks – I wasn't naive enough to believe I could beat my own meister in battle.

I struggled to my feet, one of my arms shifting back into a sythe as I watched the dust settle, our opponent surrounded by Kid, Blackstar and myself – though I knew better than to think that she'd be trapped by that alone. I could see the expression of anger on Blackstars face when he saw the face of our enemy, and Kid was in his attacking stance, but I knew his face would be calm – collected… I figure he had guessed about the same that I had. Wait.. no, this woman fought like Maka, but she looked nothing like her. Mirroring my wounds, the woman had a slice above her right eye, on her left shoulder, and a grace on her lower right thigh. I didn't understand why the wounds we had sustained mirrored one another, but I reached up and wiped the blood from my face, hoping to stop the bleeding so that I would be able to see more clearly.

Time seemed to be frozen where the four of us stood, her golden weapon held in a grip that was very much like the way Maka used to hold me. I admit, she looked nothing like the Maka I knew –but the way she fought was too much like Maka to be comfortable. I took a step towards her, then another, ignoring the reactions of the two near me – I was concentrating on our enemy, trying to get closer so I could feel if her wavelength felt familiar as well. As I got closer, she shifted her grip on the strange weapon, that I finally recognized as a Glaive – with two blades rather than one. Her stance moved, as she shifted a foot behind her and I knew that stance meant she was about to attack. I continued moving, our friends saying nothing until a flash of violet light made all of us cover our eyes and we saw the weapon standing in front of us.

The woman was *TALL* was the first thing I'd noticed, easily six foot if not more. Her hair was raven black like Tsubaki's, and as long at least if I had to guess. Tsubaki, Liz and Patty all shifted, standing to surround this pair, our group of six fanning out around them. The female didn't move, only turning purple.. wait PURPLE eyes on us as we moved? Her hair was braided, the end swinging down her back of what I would NOT call a modest outfit. She reminded me of Sids weapon, covered in bandages. This woman's arms, knuckles, legs, feet and even her waist and torso were covered in tight wrappings. Her skin was tanned, almost as dark as Sid had been when he was alive. She wore leather braces around her upper arms, and a sling across her chest that seemed to have room for weapons – though she didn't seem to have any.

The woman was scarred left and right, I don't think there was a patch of skin on her that WASN'T covered in scars. Even her face had them, and nasty ones on her arms, in the bend of her elbow – just looking at them made me want to shudder in memory of my own. I didn't, but I couldn't imagine the pain she had to go through to get those marks. I could hear Liz 'eewing' off to my right, and Tsubakis' slight gasp of horror? Or something else, I couldn't tell. I'd stopped looking at the weapon, and towards the meister, noticing how she was dressed. Her clothing was completely different, this time she wore black boots instead of her silver ones, her legs were covered in a tight fitting black fabric – was that leather? There were horizontal slashes in the fabric on the outsides of her legs, starting with her mid calf to the top of her hip. A pair of belts hung loosely at her waist, one a deep green to accent her eyes, and the other a deep purple, which seemed to match the weapons'. These belts hung in an 'x' shape over her hips, seeming to have no other rhyme or reason than to look cool. Her top was a dark green, tight fitting piece that ended at her midriff, showing *WAY* too much skin. The straps were thin, and I had to wonder why this woman fought so much like Maka, but looked nothing like my meister.. Her hair was longer to.. and grey? No, it was silver, like mine, and *WELL* past her shoulders, in fact, I could see part of the braided thing swinging behind her near her knees.

"What the hell?" The words were out of my mouth before I could curb them, bringing a smile that could only be described as sadistic to cross the black womans' face. I had to admit – they did look cool together, but that didn't mean that I'd be letting them go any time soon. Something had happened to my Meister, and I had every intention of finding out what it was. And these two had to know what was going on – she had to know.

"What the hell indeed… Good evening, Soul Eater Evans.." She shifted her stance and I could sense everyone around us doing the same – preparing to engage them again if we had to. She stopped moving, though, her fluid movements a exuding a dangerous grace, but she didn't make a move towards anyone. "I've learned *ALL* about you, and your friends. You really think that you will leave here unharmed?" The infuriating woman arched a black eyebrow and I grit my teeth together, my right arm transforming into a sythe as I growled. She just smirked wider, crossing scarred arms over one another. "You wish to know of the woman, Maka Albarn? Unfortunately, you won't find her."

"Yea.. we will. And you will tell us where we're going to find her."

"Good luck with that one, kid. Men are just full of hot air, aren't they, Kats?" I blinked when she turned, walking back towards the silver haired meister with a smirk. Kats huh? So that's the name of the Meister we had to find information from.

"Full of hot air and worthless…Let's get rid of them." The flash of violet light revealed the weapon resting in Kats's grip once more. This gave me a chance to inspect the weapon we'd be fighting more closely. The shaft seemed to be the same heft as my own, but a gleaming onyx rather than my silver. The cruelly curved blades on either end reminded me of a pair of sickles with the curves together, almost like the tail of a goldfish – but one was longer than the other. Both ends were capped with these glaives, each actual blade probably a foot if not more in size. If I had to guess, the entire weapon was seven or eight feet long. I smirked, seeing the woman begin to spin the weapon in a twirling circle around her head, the metal flashing in the desert sun.

Everything seemed frozen in place as she spun the glaive around and around, but when she finally brought it downwards, everything burst into motion. One end of the glaive was tucked under her right arm, the left guiding the weapon as it slammed into the sand , sending bursts of the shit everywhere. Liz and Patty jumped to meet Kid who was once more in the air, his transformed weapons firing down in rapid succession at the pair below. I had leapt backwards, and could see the 'bullets' of Kids wavelength flying every which way as she repelled them with her spinning weapon? Blackstar and Tsubaki had also jumped into the air, Blackstar sending one end of the Chain Sythe into the spinning fray, only to have the weapon be caught up in the spinning glaive and wound around it. I watched as the pair spun Blackstar around with Tsubaki and then stopped the weapon abruptly, sending them both flying into the ground. Kid and I took the initiative and charged, my right arm swinging towards her as Kids wavelength bullets fired on the opposite of the side I was on.

As I suspected, she began spinning that weapon around again, rebounding Kids attacks – but that's not what I was aiming for. While she spun that weapon, she was open behind her, and that opening was what I was going to shoot for – that opening when she concentrated on blocking Kids attacks. When I got close enough, I moved, trying to get around behind her. Maka was the acrobat, not me.. .but I could still hold my own I felt. I moved around her, bringing my right arm up and to the right only to be met with the glaive of her weapon, being left blinking at the sudden change of her attacks.

I grinned, reaching up to grab the shaft of the weapon, trying to hold it steady so that Kid could shoot her. I felt the painful wavelength of the weapon arcing through my hand and grit my teeth – I couldn't let her leave. Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a choice. I heard Kid and Blackstar yelling a warning and looked up, seeing some sort of sphere flying at us, and had to release my grip on the glaive to get out of the way. The ball hit where I'd been standing not a moment after I moved, and when I landed, the giant ball of dust and crap that had been kicked up left not a trace of either meister or weapon.

I clenched my fists, feeling the pain of wounds as if they were far away. I tch'd and stuffed my hands in my pockets, turning my back to the enemy that we'd been fighting. I looked up at Kid and Blackstar as they came closer, then Tsubaki, Liz and Patty when they transformed.

"Who the hell was that?" I shrugged, heading towards my bike and adjusting my leather jacket around my shoulders.

"Who the hell knows.. Let's get to where they were going – see if we can find Maka that way." I lifted my bike out of the sand and knelt to pick sand from the exhaust and some of the motor.

"How do you know we're going the right way?" I smirked at Kid's question and threw my leg over my bike, restarting the engine and revving it to let it get the sand out of the workings. I glanced over my shoulder at him, my hands once more tucked in my pockets.

"Call it a hunch."

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Author's Note: So… welcome to my two OC's that I've had since I started writing/RP'ing. :D The weapon is Vlarindara, who is usually a ninja/assassin type. She liked to run on rooftops and stuff. :DThe meister is Katsuma – another of my OC's that usually used the Glaive as a primary weapon and was something of a magic user. So yea.. Any ideas about what's going on? ;) I can tell you right now that Kats isn't Maka, though why does she fight like her? Hmm.. .I wonder. :D Enjoy.. Another chapter will be up today.


	6. I believe in My Friends!

Title: Taken

Warnings: SEVERE Angst, Kidnapping, Implied rape, character torture... Enjoy?

Pairings: SoulxMaka Implied KidxPatty and BlackstarxTsubaki

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater.. if I did.. I'd be rich. :D

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Soul PoV.

The rest of the trip we made without any major incident. There were a few skirmishes with some of the weak protectors of their building, but nothing that we couldn't handle in a few minutes. We ran into about three contenders, but they all fell to the combined front the three of us put forth. There was nothing that would stop us from getting Maka back. That much I knew and felt in my heart, that much I would believe with all of me, or I wouldn't be able to save her. Maka had once told me that if there was no belief in our actions, they would fail sure as anything. I refused to fail when we were this close, when there was something so important on the line. The farther we traveled, the closer we got to the building that had been hidden in a cluster of sand dunes, only the top spire visible from any distance. Unless you knew what you were looking for, you'd miss the sand colored spire rising aboce the dunes. We almost did, but Kid was high enough in the sky that he noticed the building it was attached to.

His warning served to bring our spirits higher, help our weary bodies push a little harder, a little faster. I know I was at my limit, having stayed up all night, and the stress of trying to find Maka and be there for her. It was all taking its toll, and I knew that I would start losing some of my fighting ability the longer I stayed up. The fact that the building was visible now was all that I needed to spur myself forward, to wake me up from my sleepless stupor that was beginning to take over, though I was fighting it with everything I had.

It was strange, we almost seemed like the defenses that we had been running into from the get go had just suddenly stopped showing up. Expecting them to have given up was almost too much to hope for, but every little bit helped in something like this. We sped towards our destination, and behind me, I could feel Blackstar unwrapping Tsubaki in her Chain Sythe form from around his neck, gripping both of her hand sythes in either hand. It made me grin, knowing that he was getting ready, even though we hadn't reached them yet. Above me, Kid was adjusting his grip on Liz and Patty, preparing for our confrontation.

I wish that I'd seen what was going on below our feet, but there was nothing I could do about it. As they say, hindsight is always twenty twenty, and maybe things would be different if I could have seen into the future. The ground beneath my motorcycle erupted in a barrage of sand and grit, knocking both me and Blackstar over and out of the way. I landed in a less than cool position unfortunately, skidding across the sand on my backside. Blackstar and Tsubaki landed in the same position as I did, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, all things considered. I climbed to my feet only to find that whatever the hell it was that had caused it before was starting a whirl pool into the ground, one that both Blackstar and myself were in range of.

Kid was firing into the mass below us, and Blackstar was scrambling to escape the swirling pool, but as I scrambled, my leg was caught on something. More accurately, something was wrapped around my ankle, dragging me into the swirling vortex. This was not cool, not cool in the slightest! I clawed at the sand, gritting my teeth when it made me no headway in the attempt to escape. I could tell that Kid had stopped firing when he came down near me and knelt on his skateboard offering his hand to me.

"Soul!" I hated getting help because most of the time it wasn't cool… but right now, there wasn't much I could do about it. I lurched upwards, trying to make a pass for his extended hand, missing by mere centimeters. Kid lowered his board and made another pass for it and I lunged up for the next chance but found myself falling faster. Before I knew it, I was falling through a dark passage. What the hell? It seemed like this fall was never going to stop, I just kept falling. Knowing better than to leave my arms and legs spread out, I lifted my arms above my head so that when I *DID* land, I could balance myself.

Finally, I started to see a pinpoint of light that steadily grew larger and larger as I fell, finally falling through it. My knees bent when I landed, my arms swinging down to take some of the impact of the landing. When I straightened, I could see that I was surrounded by a set of three Miesters and weapons, one being the pair of females before. This wasn't good. I transformed my arm into a sythe, defending the first of the attacks shot my way

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Maka PoV.

"You still won't let me help you get revenge on those that hurt you? Come on now, Dear girl… They will only do it again." Medusa had propped herself up on one of the arrows she so enjoyed, making herself hover right in front of my face as she talked. They'd finally taken to chaining my ankles down to – I guess they got tired of me kicking them all the time. Unfortunately, this left me with a sour taste in my mouth, because it allowed Medusa to get close enough that I could see the electric like smog slinking out of her mouth when she talked.

I couldn't sense any soul wavelengths in here – not after they'd moved me from my original cell to one that was different. I hadn't tried to resonate with Soul after he had pushed me away before – but I kept having a nagging feeling that it just wasn't my weapon partner. Logic continued to rule over reason in that – as no one but my partner could enter our souls that way. No one but the Black Blood, but we'd dealt with that a long time ago. Soul hardly ever acted that out of character, even for his 'cool guy' attitude… I groaned when I smelled the rotting, almost dusty smell of medusa's breath and shook myself from my thoughts of Soul and returned to the here and now.

"How rude of you, to be dozing off when I'm talking to you… Do the harsh words that they say affect you so?" My eyes narrowed as they usually were in this place – at this rate I would have permanent wrinkles between my brows. That was something that I'd have to deal with at this rate, if I ever got out of here.

"I can't help it.. You're boring me." I'm sure Soul would have laughed at my quip, being the cool guy that he was and all that. When she frowned, there was a sense of victory as I hadn't been able to get that kind of a reaction out of her more than once already. This made twice now and I had to admit, even though I knew I'd be getting hurt for it, it felt good. "I told you, I don't care what you're talking about. Soul wouldn't turn against me, not unless something was controlling him. Even if you turned me against them, I wouldn't hurt any of them."

"How quaint." Medusa sat with her chin in her hands, that unnaturally wide grin staring at me even as she balanced on her tail. This woman was beginning to piss me off even more than she had in the beginning when she ruled over Chrona. Instead of talking, she moved closer to me, and was only a hairs breath from my face. The stench of her breath was enough to make me gag and put everything I had into not losing what little food I still had. If I had any left. I couldn't honestly tell if I did or not, or how many days had passed. I knew that I was hungry, but that really didn't give me any kind of an indication of how long it'd been. "You cling desperately to a loyalty that will only be your undoing in the end.. Why do you cling so tightly to something worthless like that?"

"It's not worthless. Not in the least, Medusa. Maybe you don't know what the word loyalty means, or courage, or friendship. You might not know those definitions, but I do and I hold those words and more dear in my heart. I have a lot of friends, but only a few that I would trust with my life. I worry too much, sure… I put their needs before my own more often than not and sometimes it might hurt me to do that, but I do it because I love them. I know that they would do the same for me, even if they do try to put on 'tough guy' acts. " I lifted my head and looked at the witch in front of me, boring into her with as much conviction and courage as I possessed. "Not a one of them would leave me behind, not even Liz who's afraid of ghosts and things like that. " I lowered my head, biting my lip slightly as I imagined all of them, coming my way as Soul told me they were. Despite myself, a smile spread across my lips, "Even now, they're on their way here and they're going to destroy you and your people here… The ones that you used to hurt me, and hurt everyone else. You are all going to die in here, so make sure that you're prepared to be killed in this place!"

If my friends heard what was coming out of my mouth, I know they'd be staring in shock. I may have gotten mad before – but nothing like this. I couldn't believe that I was able to get this mad right now, even after everything that had happened to me. These two… three days, maybe more? Had taken their toll on me, but I wouldn't let them get to me – I couldn't let them get to me. I know that if I saw that wolf I wouldn't be able to hold up as well as I was, but for now I could handle myself with just Medusa. I found that if I used anger to fuel my actions, then it worked better. It curled into a hard ball in my gut that I could use to fuel my movements. OF course, that anger only built when things like them hitting me happened.

The punch that Medusa sent my way rattled my chains and sent my head snapping to the side where it stayed while I tried to catch my breath. I had to admit that had hurt, but compared to the punches of the Kieshan I had fought, it felt like a bee sting. While it didn't 'hurt' per say, I still had to regain my breath after something that hit me that hard. My eyes moved to focus on my captor, and I smiled, a smile worthy of one of Souls crooked smirks. That smirk faded the moment I heard a voice by the door and jerked my head up, terror lancing through my entire being.

"Well now.. Looky who's awake." The man stepped closer and closer to me and all I could see was his face getting closer and closer. He stepped around Medusa and she allowed him to get close enough to place his hand against my cheek. That simple touch paralyzed me, and I couldn't even breath, it felt like even my lungs had stopped working. Everything in my body was screaming for me to kick, to scream to do anything to get away from him, but I couldn't, I knew I couldn't. "Now that you're awake.. why don't you help me out with a little problem that I have." His grin turned sadistic as he spoke again, leaning in and getting close enough to me that I could see the slight fangs peeking out of his mouth – fangs that had already caused enough damage. His left eye, the tattoo of 'NO FUTURE' above it was almost the only thing filling my field of vision as the hand NOT on my cheek moved south, to the parts of me that weren't covered by tattered clothing . Though, I don't think there was any part of me not covered in a scratch or wound of *SOME* sort, even my hands and feet hadn't been left alone.

He moved his entire being closer, close enough that I could feel the heat from his skin on mine and forced myself to close my eyes and try to bite back the whimper that was forcing its way out of my throat. I failed miserably, causing him to laugh, the grasp he had on my arm startling me into opening my eyes with a gasp before his tongue invaded my mouth. The only thought running through my mind at the time was an unending repetition of a single two letter word. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no….

"Get your paws off of her you damn, dirty dog!"

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Author's Note: OoOoOOOoOoOoOoooooOooo…. Maybe another chapter tonight.. And I beg forgiveness if this fic isn't very good. I'm trying to get into Soul Eater writing styles and such. Enjoy!


	7. Reunited

Title: Taken

Warnings: SEVERE Angst, Kidnapping, Implied rape, character torture... Enjoy?

Pairings: SoulxMaka Implied KidxPatty and BlackstarxTsubaki

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater.. if I did.. I'd be rich. :D

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Soul PoV.

I hadn't seriously expected to beat the five meisters and their weapons when I'd come through the tunnel, but I didn't go down without a fight either. I'd managed to knock out one of the meisters, and had gotten one of the weapons unconscious, but I'd been overwhelmed easily without my meister. I had expected to be put into a cell, but what I *HADN'T* Expected was that they would lead me right to Maka. I had seen the extent of her injuries when we'd met in our resonance, but seeing them in person was one hell of a shock. It was a shock, but seeing him kissing her made me furious, made me want nothing more than to rip that wolf to pieces. I had both of my arms trapped behind my back by the Meister from before, the woman her weapon had called Kats. She had one hell of a strong grip, and with her incredibly tall weapon standing next to me, I knew better than to try and shift my hands into sythes to escape.

When they steered me around the corner, I heard Medusa's voice along with the voice of the wolf man we knew as Free talking. What I didn't understand is what they'd been talking about – at least until I saw who it was they were talking to. Or rather, what they were doing – when I saw that, I saw red, and knew right away that Free was the one that had scared her as badly as she'd been when we'd met. I wasn't acting cool at all when I screamed at him, struggling against the hands holding my arms. Both Free and Medusa started, turning to look at me as I struggled, though I instantly stopped moving when the blade of the glaive was pressed to my throat. My eyes traveled up the length of the blade to the arm that connected to the womans shoulder.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The cold voice would have sent shivers down my spine if I hadn't been watching Maka instead of the people around me. Free had moved around my meister and wrapped his hand around her throat, his free hand around her side. I could see the slight look of pain on her face as his elongated nails dug into her skin, and I only got more upset when I saw the blood welling around his nails. Her eyes had focused on me and I could see the veiled hope, but also the fear in them. I hadn't been her partner for so long and not learned her subtle moods, nor had she not paired up with me and couldn't know mine. Instead of saying anything, or giving away anything big, I just lowered my head and smirked, a wide smile that could have split my face but didn't. "Madame Medusa, We've another prisoner for you."

"Oh, how quaint. So you brought the Meisters' weapon to us. What an interesting turn of events… Tell me, Soul Eater Evans… what would you give to see this pretty girl of yours set free?" I grit my teeth, knowing full well that she knew the answer but was only toying with me. A blind fury laced through me when Free tightened his grip on her throat, but I was proud of my partner when she didn't make any noise because of it. She was the coolest partner ever… I didn't say anything to Medusa, or about Free touching Maka, though I would have loved to insert my sythe into his backside. "Oh, come now. Don't be like that, Soul Eater. Why don't you come talk to me a bit hmmm? Let's settle this once and for all, I'll tell you what.. You hand yourself and those five outside over to me and I'll let the girl go."

I knew she had no intentions of doing any of that, and instead of listening to Maka's strangled exclamation, just looked up at Medusa and grinned. "Tch.. I'll trade myself without a second thought if you wre actually going to let her go. It's uncool to expect someone to speak for their friends. I wouldn't let any of them give themselves up for this – Maka is my Meister.. not theirs." The cuff to the back of my head dropped my gaze from the witch, and sent me to the ground in a very not cool way. I was worried about Maka, and what would happen to her at this point.. but I couldn't do anything about it right now. So uncool.

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I woke up laying on the floor in a cell much like Maka's and coughed as I forced myself to get up. First my elbows, then to my knees and then I stood wondering at the idiocy that these guys didn't chain me down as they did to Maka. Then again, I'd probably just cut through any shackles they would put on me, but was there a guard outside the door? I walked over to the door, and could hear a quiet coughing outside of it and smirked, shaking my head. What a waste of manpower, the others would come find us eventually, I trusted that.. but where was Maka?

The stone walls felt cool against my palm as I ran my hand around the room, searching for anything that felt familiar, like Maka. There wasn't a window or anything, but maybe I could sense her through the walls. I didn't have Soul Perception like Maka did, but we had a connection deeper than most of the Miesters with demon weapon partners did. I walked the room at least three times before giving up and pressing my back against the wall and sliding down. With my knees pulled up, I stretched my arms over them and closed my eyes, trying to concentrate and not lose my mind in here. From what I knew, Maka had been missing for three days now, which meant that had been three days for them to do whatever they wanted.

By that timetable, I'd gotten in contact with her through resonance two nights ago.. which made tonight the third that she would be missing. Damnit, I hated math, and reached up to rub my head, feeling a massive headache coming on. Out of nowhere, a high pitched scream tore through the air and it chilled me to the very core of my being, because I knew exactly who it was. Before I knew it, I had surged to my feet and was launching at the door, my right arm changing to a sythe that I used to ram through the door, only to have an electric shock go through my blade, sending me flying backwards until I hit the opposite wall and then the ground before I could get hold of myself again. Damnit that had hurt, but …Maka… My feet hit the ground and I ran again, crashing my shoulder into the door, ramming my arm through it for the second time.

This time, I didn't get electrocuted, which was interesting, but the laughing from the other side of the door brought my attention to the 'guard'.

"What's your issue?" I pulled my arm back through the door in preparation to stab at the source of the laughter.

"Nuttin'. Jez be you's lil' girly sounds like she be havin' some fun." My teeth ground together as I pulled my arm back, preparing to send it flying through the door again.

"What did you say?" I could feel my eyes narrowing as I talked to him, gritting my teeth and trying not to let the bastard outside know how much his words affected me. He didn't speak again, only laughed when Maka's scream cut through the air again. I hated being unable to do anything, but I could concentrate on the source of the noise. Forcing my eyes to close, I also forced my breathing to still, to smooth out so I could concentrate. The scream came again, and I forced myself not to launch at the door, but to rotate slowly and concentrate on the sound. There, it had come from my left, and I smirked. That much I could handle, that much I could do and turned to face the wall. There was no guarantee, but maybe I could slice through the wall – but there was also a chance of hurting Maka if she was right next door to me.

Instead of taking the chance that I might hurt her, I dropped to my knees and began working at the stones near the base of the wall. Her screaming had stopped after the third one, but I knew enough to know that she wasn't out of danger. Instead of letting myself dwell on it, I did the only thing that I could do, and that was concentrate on getting to my meister. She would hold out until I reached her, that much I knew. I was sure of her strengths, she wouldn't have made me a Deathstythe if she hadn't been strong. Just hold on, Maka… You can hold on until I get there. I hated listening to her cries, but I knew that for now, they were silent.

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After some time, I could hear some sound through the wall through the progress I'd made. So far, I had managed to scratch out a block about the size of my fist, and another block slightly bigger. This had given me a decent opening to see through – just a crack, but it was an opening nonetheless. What had been so surprising, was the thinness of the wall, only about a foot thick, if that. Through the small opening, I could see something that looked like an arm, but nothing other than that. With another small grunt, I pulled out some more stone work, finally pushing the last bit out of the opening into the other cell. Now I could get my hand and arm through the small hole and that's just what I did. My fingers touched the wounded arm and slid over the skin trying to follow it as far as my arm would go.

I couldn't reach very far, but fingers touched my own questing ones tentatively before gripping onto my hand tight enough to almost hurt. There was no way in hell that I would ever forget the hands belonging to my meister, and tightened my own grip on hers. I tried to give her as much comfort as I could without saying a word, and soon after, her first hand was joined with a second. My fingers were warmed through her grip, and I felt another bit of skin before I realized that she'd pressed our joined hands to her forehead.

"Maka…" I grunted and started pulling at more of the stones, trying to bring the opening larger so I could reach more of her. As my right arm dug at the rocks, my left was still clinging to Maka, and her shaking had become more concerning as time went on. "Maka… if you can, tell me if you see any souls coming our way… We need warning if this Is going to work." I couldn't hear her say anything, but I felt the slight release of pressure on her death grip on my hands and knew it as the affirmation that it was. While I dug with my free hand, I kept my mouth running, which was uncool. Though, more uncool was the shaking that my partner was constantly doing, and when I spoke, I could feel her shaking die down.

Finally, I made enough of an opening to get my shoulder through and after I had more room, I inched forward and wrapped my arm around her. She helped me with this by dragging herself up against the wall, leaving me room to bring my arm around her stomach instead. She was pushing herself onward despite her injuries, and it warmed me despite knowing she was hurt. At least her shaking had stopped, and I kept working at the stone.

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I'd had to stop four times during the digging at her warnings each time. Our warnings had been skin of our teeth, and I began to wonder if she had lost her ability to sense souls. I had been taken out once, and that wolf and Medusa had come to Maka three times. Each time, I was resisting the urge to put my sythe through the wall and try to gut them. I wasn't sure how long we'd been down here, but I'd managed to get enough of a hole near the corner that I could get my shoulders through. Thankfully, I was still young and my shoulders were the biggest part of me. Maka wasn't conscious when I scrambled through, but at least I could see the extent of her injuries in person rather than in our souls.

I lifted my unconscious meister into my arms, cradling her against my chest and tightening my grip on her. She looked worse than she had before, but I should have expected it. Despite that, I was still shocked at the extent of her injuries. Listening for the footsteps outside, I gently shook Maka, trying to get her to wake up. She finally did, much to my relief and I grinned at her, pushing some hair from her face.

"'Bout time you woke up… You'll waste away if you keep sleeping like that." Her sudden grasp on my neck wrung a grunt from me, but I didn't move or fall, just tightened my own grip on her. "Hey, hey.. it's not cool to cling like that you know." Despite my gentle admonitions, I was proud of her, and her strength to hold on. "Kid and Blackstar are still outside.. we won't have to wait long.. they'll get us a distraction."

"Just…Don't leave me here." I sighed, pressing my face into her hair and shaking my head. She'd been so strong before, facing Medusa with commendable bravery… Something she was well known for. Her bravery had carried us through thick and thin, and I admired her for that.

"I don't intend to. Maka.. if you can get through the wall with me, we can break out of here." She looked up at me and I lreaned my hand down, pushing some dirty blonde hair out of her face. "Come on.. I'll help you through it. I think there's only one guard outside my cell, instead of the three that you have.." She shifted her feet as if to point out the chains that were wrapped around them. They'd removed everything on her arms except for the manacles that they would attach the chains to when they wanted her.

"Can you…" I smirked, removing one arm from around her and transforming it into a sythe that I used to slice the chains near her feet. "Thanks.." This timid Maka was something I was never used to and all I wanted, was to see her get better. Slowly, I moved away from her and started my way back through the hole, trying to bring her with me. She balked at first, but finally followed me through the hole. We had just gotten her chest through the wall when explosions rocked the place and caused debris to fall around our heads. I yanked her through, wincing at the gut wrenching cry she gave out when her knees were scrapped just as the roof of her cell caved in.

"That was too close… Maka, are you okay?" She was shivering again and I pulled off my leather jacket, wrapping her in it. I hadn't wrapped her in it in her cell because I wasn't sure that we'd get her through the hole and didn't want to leave any hint that I was there if we hadn't gotten her through. "Come on…" I climbed to my feet, helping her up, but had to slide my arms under her legs and around her shoulders to carry her. She was too weak to stand on her own, but I didn't mind holding her. Another blast rocked our location again and I stumbled, grunting as I struggled to keep hold of her. "Damnit…Not cool."

"It's Blackstar… and Kid. Soul, we have to get out of here. They don't know where we are." I glanced down to Maka and frowned, my balance in tact again. My original plan had been to had her wield me as we broke away, but I couldn't do jack with her in my arms. She seemed to understand that at the same time that I was considering my options, and I knew the moment she gasped. "Leave me alone, Soul…I-"

"No. I've told you before – I'm not leaving you behind." I smirked, lifting my hand from her lips and shifted her in my grip until I could press my lips against hers. "Come on… Let's get out of here." I smirked at her flushed expression and shifted my grip again, changing my arm into a sythe once I had her on my back. "Ready?"

"Yea." Her word sent us rocketing towards the door, my blade slicing through the lock, sending the barricade flying open as we charged through it. The guard at the door had fallen to my slice and I gave him only a passing glance before racing down the hall. More explosions rocked our pathway, sending me stumbling every time.

"Jeez, are they *TRYING* to kill us?" Maka laughed at my comment and instead of getting mad, I just smiled, having missed the laughter from my Meister. I slammed to a halt at her shout and slung my hands behind me, supporting her as we ground to a halt. The hallway before us was blocked by a tall woman with a braid. "Shit.."

"Hello again, Soul Eater Evans." I grit my teeth and adjusted my grip on Maka, knowing that she was in no position to fight, or even get away on her own. Of course, the trembling only made me more concerned for her safety. Shit, this wasn't cool at all.


	8. All Things Must End

Title: Taken

Warnings: SEVERE Angst, Kidnapping, Implied rape, character torture... Enjoy?

Pairings: SoulxMaka Implied KidxPatty and BlackstarxTsubaki

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater.. if I did.. I'd be rich. :D

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Soul PoV.

I couldn't fight with Maka clinging to my back, nor could I expect her to wield me and expect us to escape. I could feel Maka shaking on my back and I glanced behind me towards the man approaching our back and barely held the urge to tranform my arm into a scythe. Free. Instead of changing my arms, I tightened my grip on the frail form on my back, proud of her when she didn't make a sound though I knew it hurt her. Instead, I turned, putting my back to the wall to my right, watching both sides at the same time. No way in hell were we getting out of here.. and I knew that, but I'd never admi it out loud - that just wasn't cool at all. Instead, I just grinned at the three with my shark-like teeth, defying them wordlesssly. Explosions rocked the complex to my left and I heard more cells crumbling, and knew that our time was short. Maka grunted at my back as dust from the cieling was dislodged onto our heads, covering my hair and her back and shoulders.

"Not gonna put up a fight, little mouse?" The onyx haired meister seemed to enjoy our pain, and the fact that we were trapped... like mice. Instead of getting angry, I just laughed, trying to be strong for Maka, show her that I wasn't afraid.

"What's that make you, one hell of a bitch? Oh, wait..bitches are dogs.." I smirked, tightening my arms around her thighs, careful of the wounds I knew were on them. I knew that the meister, Kats as she'd been called, wasn't pleased by my quipp, why not? It was such a nice one!

"Watch your mouth, mousie...I'll only toy with your meister some more.." The grumbling laughter to our left made me turn and glare at Free, pressing my meister closer into my back and the wall to keep her safe from the sadistic bastard. Unfortunately, the glowing shing of a weapon transforming made my eyes jerk over, seeing the glaive land in her hands. "Time to play, little mousie." My thoughts constantly revolved around my silent meister, and I knew that unless I put her down, I wouldn't be able to defend us. Another explosion made her jerk with a hiss as some more debris landed on us, and that explosion made my mind up for me. I shifted Maka in my arms, trying to hold her as comfortably and as closely as I could. The moment she saw Free, I fgelt her arms tighten uncomfortably around my neck, her face hidden in my shoulder. The weight loss she'd suffered angered me, she was so damned light...There was a hall across from us, but I didn't know if it led down to more cells, or to freedom. Maka whispered something against my neck, and even without hearing it, I knew it. Kid, Blackstar...They were across from us.. Allright then. I jumped, tucking my legs up under me as I barely avoided the swing from that bladed weapon and landed, taking off at a dead sprint down the hall.

"Soul! Left, go left!" There was nothing else to do, but trust her, and I did, tightening my grip and dodging to the left moments before a blade sliced into my right leg and knee. Maka screamed as I stumbled, dropping to my knees and rolling, to my left side to keep from dropping her. We were at a dead end anyway, the hall had been collapsed leaving nothing but rubble to look at. Makas' eyes were focused behind me as I removed my hands and spun, blocking a weapon swing, but barely. The ringing of the colliding weapons almost hurt my ears, but I could only grit my teeth and hold up against the pressure before bracing myself and pushing her away from me.

While I'd been fighting strength against strength with the other weapon, Maka had managed to drag herself closer to the rubble, putting me between her and our opponents. I crouched, because that was all I *COULD* do with my knee being injured and not working right. That woman came at me again and I grunted, feeling that weapon come closer and closer to my neck, and my meister. I startled them when I started talking, I think, because they started easing up and backing away.

"I won't let you touch my MEISTER!" I screamed the last word after freeing myself from the oppresive weight of the glaive and launched my way up at the taller female, bringing my weapon down. I was blocked and kicked and punched, doing my damndest to keep her busy - with the closed in feel of the hall, I had more room to move than she did with that large weapon. I had the upper hand even though I *WAS* injured. Another explosion sent us both to the ground, me landing on top of the woman.

"SOUL!" I jerked my head around to look at her only to be thrown down the hall and into Free's waiting arms. DAMNIT! I tried to get free, but he held me with my arms behind me so I couldn't shift them or I'd hurt myself.

"MAKA! DAmnit,let me GO!" I could see the woman advancing on her, and knew she wouldn't leave her alive. "MAKA!" I heard the scream and struggled harder against Free's grip, only to be cuffed on the back of the head and fall. I didn't know what was going on, I just knew that suddenly, I didn't remember anything at all.

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"Hey, Nigus, how is she?" Nigus frowned at him throgh her bandages, then closed her eyes and the door behind her, locking me out of the infirmary. "Nigus! How's Maka! You're scarin' me here.."

"I'm sorry, Soul.. she didn't make it through the surgery." No, I wouldn't believe it, Stein may be creepy, but he was the best we had! I grabbed her arms, shaking her just slightly, and I knew my expression was only a little crazy.

"NO! You're lying! Maka's too strong to die!" I pushed her out of the way, ducking in under her arm and into the infimrary where Stein was covering a bed with a sheet. "Maka, Maka NO!" There were people in my way, I regocnised them.. Kid, Blackstar. Tsubaki and Liz. I elbowed them all out of the way to get to that bed, that bed, where I KNEW Maka was lying. "MAKA!" Deathscythe and Sid were next, I elbowed them both out of the way, finally reaching the bed and dropping to my knees. "Maka..."

"Soul, you don't want to see her like this... This won't be how you want to remember her." I glared at him, shrugging off the hand on my shoulder and looking at the human shaped sheet before lowering my head to my arms and closing my eyes.

"Leave me alone, Stein...I just, want to be with her.." I felt him pat my shoulder before leaving, taking the rest of our group with him. I waited until the door shut with a sense of finality before gathering my courage. I lifted my head, watching the sheet in silence, from head to toe. I could see my hand reaching of its own accord to touch the dirty blonde hair splayed across the pillow. Stein had washed it... at least. That small gesture made me smile, and I noticed that the white sheet wasn't stained with blood - he must have washed her off completely. Maka...

It was only a few minutes, but I don't remember them, or how i'd come to be here.. I was sitting on Maka's bed, with her broken body cradled in my arms, the blanket wrapped around her as if she were cold. My hand was stroking over her cheek, brushing some stray whisps of hair from her eyelashes. "Hey, Maka... you did good...Real good... I'm proud to haev such a cool partner...You know that?" I lowered my head, kissing her gently before setting her back down on the bed and covering her back up. "Goodbye, Maka.." I could feel the emptyness in my soul that meant her absence, and I knew it really was true - she wasn't coming back..

I grabbed my jacket before heading back to the apartment to take one last look around. Her books were still on the table, her clothes still folded neatly over her desk chair. I smiled as I ran my fingers over the flannel of her pajamas, lifting the shirt to my face and inhaling her scent. My Maka... Tiny tits. I noticed her books piled up neatly on her desk, then laughed when I noticed they were in alphabetical order and full of notes. Then I noticed a book sitting on top, a plain, blank notebook with well worn edges. Curiosity got the better of me and I picked it up, adjusting the back on my shoulder to read it. 'Recipes' it read, and I grinned. Maka was the best cook.. The pages were dog eared, and there were notes sticking out every which way. I leafed through it, then froze, reading the notes in the margins... Maka's notes.

'Soul likes this a little burnt'

'Don't use this anymore.'

'Add more chicken to this.'

'His favorite.'

On and on these messages went, all relating to dishes that I liked, and how I liked them. It made my eyes sting, not cool at all. The book made its way into my bag as I left her room, making sure to switch off the lights and close the door - that always made her mad when I forgot to turn them off. I locked up, and headed off down the road - where was I goin'? Not sure...I was a Deathsythe, I know I'll find work somewhere... I stopped before the crest of a hill, watching the silent, deserted streets before readjusting my bag and turning away from it all for the last time.

Goodbye Maka.

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AN: NOOOOO! MAKA! Yes, I'm back after a long wait! :) And this story will have its ending. NEVER FEAR!

Whatcha think, anyone?


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